Fall 2007 Board Report

The information management team manages the technical aspects of NCPTT’s grants and projects, website, in-office computer systems and publications distribution.

NCPTT Website

The NCPTT website has been established as an authority for preservation technology research and training. The online product catalog serves as the primary vehicle for disseminating electronic versions of our products to preservation professionals quickly and inexpensively. Our online presence also promotes NCPTT preservation training.

Website Statistics April 1-Oct. 1, 2007

Between April 1 and Oct. 1, NCPTT served 3,553,023 web pages to 60,977 unique visitors. This represents an increase of 7.2 percent in pages served and 53.9 percent in unique visitors.

Bandwidth and Optimization

In August 2007, Northwestern State University substantially increased the bandwidth available both campus-wide and to NCPTT. While the lack of adequate bandwidth has negatively impacted the apparent end-user speed of our site and limited our ability to stream video, this upgrade has been substantially beneficial.

Shortly after the network upgrade we performed aggressive cuts to the size of the HTML pages output by the server, cutting the size of pages served by over 85 percent. This has resulted in a substantial increase in apparent speed for our visitors.

Website Redesign

(Photo Credit: Sean Clifford)

Redesign and Search Engine Optimization

Since the last PTT Board meeting, NCPTT has re-engineered the website to make it more navigable, removing the drop-down menus and adding sidebar navigation, breadcrumb trails, and a new search engine. Throughout this process, search engine optimization techniques have been used to ensure page names and titles are both descriptive and keyword heavy. Feedback from visitors has been very positive, particularly since the increase in bandwidth and HTML optimization.

Future Directions

While the NCPTT website continuously evolves to service the needs of our visitors, we are focusing our efforts in five main areas:

Expanding available bandwidth to support more traffic.

Frequent addition of content, both new content and conversion of all print product catalog items to HTML.

Conversion of all video products to video streaming and podcast formats.

Historic Preservation: The Next Step; Public Lecture by James Marston Fitch (1996-12)

357

Building Dry Stone Retaining Walls (2002-06)

344

Retaining America’s Dry Stone Heritage (2002-05)

330

Fire and Ice (2004-19)

324

USS Arizona: Preserving a War Memorial (2004-23)

305

Ferry of Hope: Ellis Island and US Immigration (2004-21)

298

Preserving America’s Landscape (1996-02)

272

NCPTT Publications

(Photo Credit: Anna Breaux)

In-office Computer Systems

Utilizing current computer technologies facilitates the accomplishment of NCPTT’s mission. Information technology staffers are continually researching and updating the in-office systems to make them as efficient as possible for the staff. The National Center’s IT department faces many of the same challenges that larger IT departments face. Of particular emphasis has been security, data storage and disaster recovery. The IT staff has always strived to stay ahead of the curve in these areas but recent major events nationally and on the state level have caused the National Center’s IT staff to address these issues at greater length. The IT staff is confident that its continued diligence in these areas will continue to safeguard the National Center’s electronic data.

Publication Distribution

One of the major functions of the NCPTT web site is to provide a central location to search for preservation publications. In the last six months, over 50 publication orders were mailed to the public by NCPTT IT staff. Nearly 90% of these orders were submitted via the online product catalog, averaging three products per order.

NCPTT Library

(Photo Credit: Anna Breaux)

NCPTT Library

Over the last six months, IT staff acquired over 85 new titles for the library. In addition to this, IT staff was able to catalog 56 books already in the National Center’s library that were previously uncatalogued. A database of all books and periodicals will be posted via the NPS network for other offices and parks to view as a reference. Although not a lending library, it is important to inform the preservation community of the available library resources at NCPTT.

TelNPS

NCPTT TelNPS System

(Photo Credit: Anna Breaux)

The Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Network is the mechanism whereby thousands of National Park Service employees receive competency-based training at or near their work site at little or no cost to them. The Network has over 230 receiving stations across the Service spanning five time zones. The highly interactive training allows students immediate access to their instructor. This interactivity is the key component to the success of the broad and varied training opportunities.

From April 1-Sept. 30, nine classes were taken with 38 participants. Some of those participating were staff from the Cane River Creole National Historical Park and the Cane River National Heritage Area Board and CRNHA staff. The Center’s TELNPS system received an equipment upgrade in FY2007.

The installation of the TELNPS station at NCPTT has provided Center employees and NPS employees from the surrounding area with the opportunity to gain high quality training specific to their jobs at a convenient location. The Center is excited to be a part of the NPS’s continued growth of interactive distance learning activities.